


Family Lies (The Restless Waiting Remix)

by mayachain



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abandonment, Childhood, Family, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-22
Updated: 2011-04-22
Packaged: 2017-10-18 12:24:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/188866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayachain/pseuds/mayachain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before James Sirius Potter was born, Teddy would have sworn Harry would always answer when he called.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Lies (The Restless Waiting Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MidniteMarauder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidniteMarauder/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Family Ties](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9117) by [MidniteMarauder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidniteMarauder/pseuds/MidniteMarauder). 



> A huge thank you to **florahart** and **woldy** for their invaluable input!

Teddy couldn’t believe Gran was telling him “No”. The letter on the kitchen table said _We’re at the hospital. The baby is coming!_ Eight words they’d been waiting for since Aunt Ginny became pregnant, had been expecting for days now.

Harry had cautioned that there would be a lot of waiting, but he’d promised that “If you want, you can come and wait right along with me.”

Teddy had been a bit apprehensive at the thought. He hadn’t been entirely sure what was really involved in ’childbirth’. But mostly, he’d been excited.

And now this.

“Hospitals are no place for young children,” Gran said sternly. “And Ginny will have other things to think about. Besides, you’ll have plenty of time to see the newest Potter once they take him home.”

“But Gran...”

“No.”

Despite being almost sure he would one day be placed in Gryffindor, Teddy knew better than to argue with Gran when she got this kind of forbidding look on her face. That didn’t mean he liked giving in one bit.

Harry had promised.

\- - -

“Ginny had the baby last night,” Gran announced as soon as Teddy had sat down for breakfast.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Teddy cried, ready to get his backpack from upstairs and Floo to St Mungo’s at once.

“You were fast asleep,” Gran said mildly. “All three of them were fine, he said, but it’s Ginny’s first, she – both of them – must have been exhausted. What good would it have done to wake you up on a school night when I can just as easily tell you now?”

Teddy’s indignation paled against this inexplicable mention of school. “But I want to go see...”

“There’s a lot of work involved in welcoming a new baby,” Gran interrupted in that voice that brooked no further argument. “You’ll go to your lessons, and if – _if_ \- Ginny and the baby come home today, you may go. Provided Harry allows it.”

It sounded perfectly reasonable. But that didn’t change the fact that Teddy wanted to _be there_ , or at least talk to Harry _right now_.

Of course he'd be allowed to go visit. Gran was just being Gran.

“Still wish you’d woke me up,” he mumbled.

\- - -

All morning, Teddy kept waiting for an owl to interrupt his lessons. Old Hodgekiss was making him do math, which was his least favourite subject to start with. How was he supposed to concentrate when he hadn’t talked to Harry yet and the baby had been born?

Hodgepiss didn’t understand. He _never_ understood. Teddy would have sworn the man was half-deaf, if not for the fact that he seemed to have impeccable hearing whenever Teddy said a bad word.

“This is very disappointing, young man,” he told Teddy with a mournful glare at Teddy’s mostly empty parchment. “Your mother never would have forgotten to carry that number, you know.”

“Yes, I know,” Teddy growled. “You've told me before.”

Only the knowledge that Hodgepiss would make him do an extra roll in punishment kept him from throwing his quill across the room. He wanted to climb onto his broom and escape to Godric’s Hollow, except Harry wasn’t there and if Teddy didn’t stay where he was, his godfather wouldn’t know where to find him.

Maths slid into Geography and eventually Grammar. There were no interruptions.

Harry probably knew better than to call during Teddy’s school hours. It was all too likely that Gran would turn him away because “Edward Lupin, there is nothing more important than your education.”

\- - -

Teddy shifted in his seat by the Floo. He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there, waiting. He hadn’t even made himself comfortable at first because surely, _Harry’s going to come soon._ Only when his bum got too cold had he fetched himself a pillow in a lightning-quick manoeuvre, afraid to leave the fireplace alone. He felt more on edge with every passing minute.

Any second now, the green fire would flare to life and Harry’s face would appear. His godfather would tell him everything he’d already told Gran about the baby, and then he’d ask Teddy to come over and he’d find out everything that had happened since.

Any second now.

\- - -

“Don’t you think you should get started on your homework?” Gran’s voice drifted toward him as she walked into the room.

“I can’t,” Teddy said. Wasn’t it obvious? Sure, he _could_ get up and finish this morning’s calculations by the fireplace, but what was the use if Harry was going to show the minute he set quill to parchment?

Wasn’t he?

“They just had a new baby, my dear,” Gran said hesitantly as Grandfather Ted's clock chimed four times and then twice. “You cannot imagine how _busy_ they’re going to be. When I had your mother, over a week passed before I could even think of having visitors at all.” She stood there silently for a minute, then added, “And your education is very important.”

\- - -

It wasn’t so much the words that wormed themselves into Teddy’s heart. Those were the same things she had repeated since the letter arrived. It was that she’d said them again and again, that she wouldn’t leave them alone, that what she thought he needed to understand...

Gran didn’t believe Harry would find the time to call today. Gran didn’t believe Teddy was important enough _to_ call.

No matter how hard Teddy tried to deny it, it was already past five, and so far, she’d been right. Was continuing to be right.

Harry was a father now.

For the first time Teddy could remember he became aware, really aware, that he didn’t have any parents of his own. All he had was a dead mother who used to be nothing short of perfect and a dead father nobody would tell him anything useful about.

It had never mattered before. He’d thought... He’d always thought that... Harry’d always said that... He’d always _believed..._

The next “Don't forget your homework, Teddy!” was the last straw.

“Sod my homework!” he yelled. He ignored the stunned look on Gran’s face and stormed up to his bedroom.

\- - -

Several times during the night, he woke from the sound of wings fluttering by his window. But no matter how often he sat up and listened breathlessly, there was never a beak that started pecking against the glass.

\- - -

“We’ll look in on them in a few days,” Gran said over her mug of tea in an attempt to break through Teddy’s silence.

“I don’t care,” Teddy said.

He imagined Harry and Aunt Ginny on the hospital bed, laughing and looking down at the new baby. A complete little family. Not wasting time thinking of Teddy at all.

\- - -


End file.
